Dear John, Thanks for pointing out my error on the two litre bottle labels.
It's sort of like a double sided ruler or measuring tape -- the "metric conversion" is required by law to be printed on every bottle! Oh how I minds we do pervert, When first we practise to convert! As I said earlier, the words, "metric conversion", have cost the USA a lot, so far. Cheers, Pat naughtin Geelong, Australia On 2010/11/19, at 07:57 , John M. Steele wrote: > Pat, > Two points: > *On 2 L drink bottles, this is factually incorrect. Statement of the > required contents in Customary was required since 1966 under FPLA (before the > 2 L bottle was introduced). Supplemental metric was allowed until 1994, when > its addition was required. At the moment, omitting either is illegal. Wine > and spirits are a bit different. Both the size and metric declaration are > mandatory. Customary is permitted in addition. However, the 2 L bottle is a > good example where the public thinks 2 L and not the cumbersome 2 QT 3.6 FL > OZ (67.6 FL OZ) which is also legally required. > > *If you have Excel, you have an excellent double precision floating point > resource, although you have to fuss with formatting to display all that > precision. I use an HP15C calculator, and when 10 digits isn't enough, I also > use a virtual RPN calculator on the web which uses double precision floating > point. > > If we ever get more converted, I don't want people saving the inch to define > the gallon. We can push all Customary units to completely rigorous metric > definitions. Whether that really helps is debatable, but I don't see how it > can hurt. Intermediate Customary definitions are not required and needn't be > preserved (like 231 in³/gallon). > > > Consider the upgrade to two litre drink bottles. A decision was made to use > this size within the management structure of one of the drink companies > (possibly because they could buy cheap moulding machines on the world > market). No attempt was made to provide customary equivalents using "metric > conversion" and none proved to be necessary. The public soon bought drinks in > these bottles, got used to the two litre size, and then - in a few days - got > on with their lives. > > Pat Naughtin Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com for more metrication information, contact Pat at [email protected] or to get the free 'Metrication matters' newsletter go to: http://www.metricationmatters.com/newsletter to subscribe.
